Feuilles, 2002 - 2009

Marie Amar uses a neutral background, avoids shadows and tries to represent the object in the most neutral form possible. Unlike Blossfeld, her work is not drawing, but sculptural, with references to the human body. The leaf as a symbol of desire is deeply rooted in the psyche, as with Mapplethorpe, who staged flowers in an elegant, if not dramatic, way. One of the best works of this kind was by Lee Friedlander, who took the liberty of photographing the stems of flowers in vases.
(...) It is difficult to classify Marie Amar in this tradition, as her work is characterised as much by its aesthetic composition as by its combination of photography and applied art. Her work is reminiscent of the sculptures of the renowned J. Chamberlain, who had sheet metal delivered to him from car factories, shaping this raw material into living sculptures. In this way, the metal finds its own forms, the material is not destroyed but blossoms in its own right. The same is true of Marie Amar, who photographs her leaves on the spot where she finds them, working on them without destroying either form or nature.
Through their digital staging and transformation, her photos leave the ground of pure photography and become sculpture-objects.Thomas Zander
Set of 11 colour photographs. Edition 3 + 2 EA CPrint. 2003-2009
In 2003, I created the art video Pneuma (Greek for breath), a floating plant form in perpetual transformation that evolved to the rhythm of breathing.
The video was made with the technical team of Valentine Lecêtre and Ian Gunn and screened in 2003 for my exhibition Feuilles at Galerie RX in Paris.
In 2023, the video was remastered with nod and AI and shown again on the top floor screen of Voyage Samaritaine.
Pneuma is currently being shown until 1 September 2024 as part of the group exhibition Sentience, écouter le parfum de la couleur at Abbaye de Maubuisson.
Co-curated by Marie Ménestrier and Sumiko Oé-Gottini.